This Underwood portable typewriter was a customers eBay purchase shipped directly to the shop. I really like the older Underwood Universals, a quality machine that types real nice. This particular portable was described as from an estate sale, and was well used.
The list of to – do’s on this one were: new platen (and rollers if needed), general cleaning and adjustments, replace the worn felt type bar rest, new black/red ribbon and a nice touch up and polish. The case also needed a little sprucing up. I like cleaning up the old black cases as it is kinda like polishing silver; instant gratification. The case is for another style typewriter so I’ll fabricate a bit of foam so the typewriter will not rattle around.
The platen and paper rollers were recovered by J.J. Short of Macedon, NY. which means decades more useful life for this lucky machine. Once cleaned and re-oiled the margin release needed adjusting along with the ribbon selector, then as I was going through basic testing noticed every time I returned the carriage it would skip over the margin stop, huh. Upon closer examination, I noticed the margin stop had been previously soldered and was a bit “bent”.
I took it off the margin rack and removed the solder to get a better look. Sure enough it was cracked and needed some care. This is a part that you just can’t find so very careful and minor adjustments are the order of the day. It took awhile, and now the left margin stop works like a champ!
I love the decals on this typewriter as they are still intact and look good.